With waders flooding through the Ythan mudflats, Autumn is truly here in force. With the change over of seasons, there are always some changes on the reserve, and I can’t wait personally for the arrival of the geese. A local warden has already clocked their first skein of pink-footed geese on Saturday past!

With our wildflower boxes soon to be taken in on the heath trail, the best of the flowering season is over for most plants. Yet there is a late bloomer here at Forvie that brings the reserve to life – our heather. 

Bursting to life in August/September, it transforms the stark beauty of the dunes into a landscape of gentle purples and pinks. The dune heath leaves a powerful impression when walking the trails. It is a natural landscape that can look alien in the surrounding land, an isolated place that is all the more important because of it. With it displaying its unique colours just now, it seems like as good a time as any to talk about our the dune heath.

With many wildflowers no longer in the flowering season, late-blooming Calluna vulgaris (heather) provides a vital source of nectar and pollen for solitary bees later on in the calendar year. The habitat itself is a protected feature of the reserve under the SAC and is also a UK BAP priority habitat, meaning it is recognized both nationally and internationally as an important place! 

You will undoubtedly in the height of summer the wildflower populations along the trails, but the heath is also home to particularly important lichen and fungi communities (embedded links to previous blogs!). The lime deficient dune heath here with crowberry colonised throughout is one of the best examples of this habitat in the entire UK. Outside the UK, this habitat is restricted to coasts northwards from Denmark, a keynote to why this habitat at Forvie is of European importance!

The heath formed through the natural succession of the dune system. First, it starts with the expanse of sand on the beaches. The exposure to the wind dries out the sand between the tides and pushes in landward. From here, the sand is free moving until it is stabilised by specialist grasses like marram grass which subsequently slows the movement of the sand. These plants also trap more sand leading to taller dune formation. The roots of the marram will anchor the sand giving stability and eventually lead to our fixed dunes further inland. 

After a period of stability, the fixed dunes give way to into dune heath! The density of vegetation gives you a good idea of the age of dune, or how long since it has moved at least. Consequently, walking from the beaches of Forvie inland to the dune heath can give you a walk-through time. An ever-changing landscape at the forefront by the sea, to semi-fixed dunes that shift slightly through the years and storm pressure, and finally the dune heath, an old landscape that likely developed over 100s of years. 

For a time, up until the late 1970s, there was game shooting at Forvie of grouse and pheasant! This also included moor burning to provide young heather shoots for grouse feeding but this has not happened for over 50 and is now a more natural habitat with plants of various density and age. 

Typically this habitat would require grazing to help maintain the plant communities and stop scrub like willow trees taking hold. And graze it we do! I use the term “we” loosely here, I mean Forvie’s wildlife. Thankfully, the heath mostly manages itself. Roe deer graze tree saplings that take hold and the rabbit population helps maintain a mosaic vegetation population for a healthy environment.

This rare landscape is in its full splendour at the moment and is home to a host of wildlife. From breeding meadow pipits and skylarks, transient butterflies over the summer and ever-present roe deer. A beautiful place to walk and appreciate a timeless landscape.

With Autumn migration starting to kick off, feels like summer is over already! Normally around this time of year we start keeping our eyes and ears open for migrant birds. A flavour of something different and occasionally, something rare around these parts. But that’s not what this blog is about, rest assured though that there will be updates on this in weeks following!

Over the last 2 weeks, we have been focussing on something rare of a different kind, Forvie’s plants. We put a lot of focus on protecting and monitoring our birdlife to conserve biodiversity. In a similar vein to this, plant diversity is no exception and is key to maintaining habitats and wildlife that can rely on particular plants. The parallels to our birds don’t end here, plants suffer the same pressures with certain species being locally or nationally rare. Without care and attention to these rare species, we could lose this distinctive piece of diversity.

Below is a quick recap of some of the plants that make up a notified feature on the SSSI of the reserve, Forvie Vascular Plant assemblage.

Small Adders tongue Fern

This unique looking fern is fairly small in stature, between 10-30 cm tall and can take an age to find sometimes! If you have recently seen me crawling around on my hands and knees on the reserve looking a little strange, this is what I’ve been doing. Looking for this or one of the other plants below. This fern is so-called due to the tall stalk that resembles a snakes tongue. They are more common down south in England and scarcer here in Scotland. This year we have located more colonies than previously recorded which is great to see this plant prospering in places across the reserve.

Frog orchids

I won’t lie, this is definitely one of the least attractive orchids on the reserve. Compared with our northern marsh and heath spotted orchids, they are certainly not as colourful, but it’s an understated beauty in its own right. The plants have spread noticeably along the estuary with several new smaller colonies forming!

Allseed

Ahh, the infamous allseed. Actually, I’d never heard of it before and definitely hadn’t seen it before. Typically it grows to under 10cm tall so it can be easy to miss, even when you’re looking for it, evidence below.

Official records from 6 years previous located 2 groups of this species. We have yet to find any spread to new locations but the 2 groups previous are still present and in higher numbers which is great to see. Slow and steady wins the race eh?

Common wintergreen

Another variable rare-ish plant that is not overly colourful. I am starting to wonder if there’s a correlation. In days past, the leaves of wintergreen were used to treat wounds and treat bladder and kidney infections as the leaves had both diuretic and disinfectant properties. I might pass on that myself. Another plant that seems to be holding its own on the reserve from the previous monitoring program.

As mentioned earlier, it might seem like a small thing but this diversity of plants boosts the productivity of the ecosystem overall. These plants may benefit some species of insects, for example, which will have downstream effects on other species that rely on said insects as a food source. Each piece of the puzzle is important so to speak. Just like our terns and eiders, these plants have an important role to play in building the overall reserve picture.

With events like RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch drawing in huge interest from the public, Citizen Science is becoming more and more popular. Their event this year had almost half a million participants which is just incredible! It is an example of citizen science at its best.

Citizen science is, for any who arent sure, the collection and analysis of data by members of the public.

My interest in citizen science, and my first time partaking in a project of this kind, originated through Wetland Bird Surveys (WeBS) for the BTO. These surveys are done all around the coast of the UK and collect some of the most important information about waterbird populations in the country. They are extremely well established as far as surveys go, with 3.75 million waterbirds counted each year by a group of 3000 plus volunteers. this data gathered by volunteers has far-reaching effects. It influences and informs management on nature reserves across the whole UK.

The scope of what can be accomplished through citizen science is extraordinary. An invested public can achieve more in a day than any organisation. For all you lovers of the outdoors, with a little bit of knowledge (or some patience and interest to pick some up), there are plenty of nature projects to get involved with (even from the safety of your garden!). Each of these monitoring programs linked here helps build a better understanding of our natural world on a national scale.

In the spirit of this, each of the staff members at Forvie tried our hands at contributing to one of these programs from the safety of our gardens. Have a read about our experiences below and give one a go yourself.

Annabel – Royal Horticultural Society Cellar Slug Hunt

As I looked down the list of citizen science projects available, wondering if I had missed the best of the sunshine for this year, I hoped there was a need to count something that didn’t rely on good weather, perhaps that stayed still long enough for me to identify it and could be done outside my block of flats.  The RHS Cellar Slug Hunt leapt out immediately!

I know very little about slugs but the simple task is to find yellow or green cellar slugs, as it seems the green ones are increasing in number, while worryingly, the yellow ones may be declining to the point of extinction across the UK.  Both species eat fungi and rotting vegetation so are no threat to prize lettuces.  After a damp day with a few downpours I only had to wait for it to get dark enough to venture out with a torch and camera phone, hoping the neighbours weren’t looking out and wondering what on earth I was up to this time!

At first I checked the wheelie bins, the pavement and up the side of the building but not even a slime trail was to be seen.  ‘Think like a slug’ I thought, so ventured over onto damp grass and my heart raced as I spotted a slender dark object glistening slightly against the green.  When my eyes focussed however, I realised I was looking at a twig!  How many newbie slug seekers have fallen foul of that disappointment, I pondered.  That glimmer of excitement was however enough to keep me going and sure enough, another sweep of the torch and there in the beam was…alas not a slug, but a magnificent garden snail.

Confident I was now indeed on the right track, my eyes were drawn to a humungous dark streak of something up ahead.  As I raised the light, I could only gasp at the size of the thing!  It was around 15cm long. Where do these things lurk during the day? 

It has the stripe of yellow on the lower tail, like the yellow cellar slug, so could I have struck gastropod gold?  Unfortunately, the eye stalks are brown and not grey-blue and there are many stripes and a few spots near the head.  This I believe is a leopard slug, so while very interesting was not the target for my night’s work. Turning back to the snail, it had been joined by a smaller slug. 

Now this was interesting, it had blue-grey eye stalks.  It also had a sort of olive green colour to it.  I am waiting for my record to be verified through the survey, but I think it is the advancing green cellar slug!

For 20 minutes wandering at night, listening to the sound of the dark and treading carefully I certainly enjoyed my slug safari and recommend you try one yourself!

Patrick – UK Ladybird Survey

For me, learning is part of the fun so I wanted to take part in some citizen science in an area of nature that I didn’t know as much about. So that’s how I ended up with ladybird monitoring. All I needed was to get out in my garden with a simple ID sheet (provided on the website) and begin monitoring. The website gave easy to follow tips on finding and identifying Ladybirds. It was pretty straight forward, mostly involving turning over leaves and recording any species that I saw, making sure to take a photo for ID proof.

I spend the better part of an hour monitoring and lo and behold, I found absolutely nothing. It’s always the way it seems, normally you’re tripping over ladybirds but the second you go looking, they are nowhere to be found. Thankfully my sister came to the rescue with my first sighting. The following day I came across a few individuals myself too. The beauty of this monitoring was that there were no set time limits so as much or as little as you would like was the order of the day. Even records in passing were touted as useful, you just need a quick snap for proof of ID.

The 5-6 individuals that we stumbled across were all 7-spot ladybirds. No huge haul but interesting to me nontheless. From here I input the info into an online form with my pictures and viola! Citizen science mastered. I learned a thing or two about ladybirds in general and also about the invasion of the harlequin ladybird threatening native species. Definitely something I will cotinue to look out for. Just as important to all this, I made a small contirbution to a wider program of information for conservation efforts. Happy days work.

Daryl – RSPB Big Breakfast Birdwatch

There’s only one thing I love more than a big breakfast, and that’s a big breakfast while doing a spot of birding. So this particular activity was an obvious choice for me. During the lockdown period, many folk have been keeping a close eye on their garden wildlife, and this project uses social media (via the hashtag #BreakfastBirdwatch) to create a community of breakfast birdwatchers, sharing their sightings, photos and videos. It takes place every weekday between 8 and 9am.

So what of this morning’s session then? Well, over the course of my morning cuppa, all the usual suspects dropped in. Starling, House Sparrow, Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Blackbird and Wren all stood up to be counted. All good solid garden-birding staples.

But there was also a surprise in store. Our peanut feeder was already more than half empty (should have topped up before starting off!). But this was still enough to attract a Great Spotted Woodpecker – our first garden record. It was a brilliant moment, although the woodpecker did look a bit silly when shimmying up our spindly Elder bushes, in lieu of proper trees. Collieston doesn’t exactly provide great woodpecker habitat, but at this time of year juvenile birds (like this one) are dispersing into new territory, and they have to make the best of whatever they find.

As well as having a bit of fun (and it’ll be even more so once Patrick teaches me how all this social media stuff works), I will also be sure to send my breakfast birding records to NESBREC, our local biological records centre. It’s just a small contribution to science, but if we all do a little bit – ‘many a meikle makes a muckle’, as they say (apparently). And that’s what citizen science is all about.

It’s the Year of Coast and Waters 2020. While many of the events that were planned have been put on hold due to the COVID crisis, we can still appreciate some aspects of Forvie NNR in celebration of the year. 

While I’m a tad biased, I think Forvie is a beautiful example of a coastal site. With imposing and dynamic dunes, raised shingles beaches and impressive cliffs to boot, Forvie’s almost got it all. These habitats are essential for our wildlife here at Forvie, wildlife which is often unique to the coast. The terns and gulls occupy the raised beaches annually, the cliffs are home to our cliff-nesting seabirds and the dune slacks support a wide variety of flora. 

Lots of people will know the importance of these habitats for our wildlife, some will even know that this isn’t the only reason they are important. More to the title of this article, our habitats at Forvie are a coastal defence. Other areas along the coast that are more flat in nature or have farmed land are at risk of flooding from the sea during storms. Looking inot the nto the future, they are at risk of slowly being lost to rising sea levels as well.

Our coastal features here at Forvie for example act as a buffer, protecting inland areas against storm events. It’s easy to picture how cliffs accomplish this, they are huge physical barriers against the sea. Our dune system, from Aberdeen to Forvie NNR, acts in much the same way. Both play a similar role as a physical barrier along the coast, but our dunes are more flexible. With each storm, parts of the dunes will be eroded as it would with the clifs, albeit much slower a process. During periods of normal weather, wind and wave action bring new sand to the dunes replenishing them. The dune system is kept in a balance through the removal and addition of sand to the system!

Our dunes and cliffs aren’t our only coastal defence here at Forvie, some are less obvious. Natural wetlands like our saltmarsh play a role here too. As you approach Forvie NNR from waterside carpark, the grassy saltmarsh and mudflats are some of the first bits of habitat you will see along the estuary. The saltmarsh acts as a sponge, soaking up water and mitigating flood risks along the estuary! As well as playing an essential role for our waders and waterfowl, they are becoming increasingly recognised for this role it plays in defending our coastline. 

Not that it needed visualisation, but during a not very interesting movie on Saturday night I whipped open paint on my laptop and prepared a little diagram.

The above points are not to say that these coastal habitats are immune to the pressures of climate change. With more storm events and rising sea levels, each of these habitats will face increased erosion at Forvie and elsewhere. Yet our natural coastal habitats are better equipt to deal with pressures from the sea than other habitat types. They are an integral part of Scotlands Coast so take some time and appreciate the benefits of our coastal landscape when you’re next out at Forvie!

The breeding season is in full force. Nests for some birds have come and gone, others may be getting ready to breed for a second time already! The Forvie ternary is bustling with life at the moment with tern and gull chicks are on their way to fledging! Sometime during the week just passed we welcomed our first fledged Black-headed gull chick. With quarantine in place, it has been a while since I have seen Forvie’s charismatic nature in action personally so social media and the work of those local to the reserve has been much appreciated to keep in touch Forvie’s nature. My garden’s wildlife with new baby sparrows just gone and two robins yelling at each other remind me daily as well that nature at Forvie is still moving forward.

Recently I posted a blog about some of the intriguing nesting habits of various species, most of which breed on the reserve. It talked a little around communal breeding behaviour in the ternary. All our terns are colonial breeders, none more so than our Sandwich Terns. True to their names, they sandwich their nests right on top of each other! No social distancing here to say the least. An individual nesting territory is quite small, a tiny area around the nest that they protect for themselves. The neighbour’s nest could be closer than a meter to give you an idea of how little space they claim individually. Meanwhile, a Robin can claim half a hectare all for itself! Taking social distancing to the extreme.

Our ground-nesting Eiders normally nest close to each other, (although they can also nest in isolation). Overall though, territory isn’t very important to them. Their true communal qualities happen when chicks hatch and form creches on the estuary. These creches are escorted and kept safe by adult females that didn’t breed that year, the aunties of the group! This allows the mothers that had been incubating a chance to feed and recuperate energy.

But not all of our ground-nesting birds are communal breeders here at Forvie. Anyone walking across Forvie’s dune heath at this time of year is inevitably going to hear or see Skylarks. They make beautifully formed nests hidden inside the vegetation. Their song is an inescapable sound across the heathland. They sing high above their territory and when you catch one singing, you might hear a rival nearby, both singing to defend and impress. Claiming their territory reduces competition for resources and it also serves to attract a mate. Just as how my Robins yell at each other from either end of my garden, the Skylarks are proclaiming their borders.

Individual territories are quite common as a breeding behaviour with many of our songbirds in the UK. Singing takes up a lot of energy so it has to be worth it. By singing to defend, not only are they protecting their food supply but they limit physical competition (birds having a scrap) which saves energy in the long run. The territory songbirds claim can vary in size year by year depending on food and habitat availability. As mentioned earlier, a little Robin can claim half a hectare, happily sharing it with other species but chasing away any competition from other Robins poking around on its patch. Our terns, on the other hand, keep very little individual space but their communal range for feeding comparatively to the Robin is enormous, pushing out into the North Sea.

Not all our small birds are territorial though. Our colonies of Sand and House Martins on the reserve are just that, colonies. Like our terns they live and nest close together sharing feeding areas along the estuary to catch insects.

Next time you’re out on the reserve, keep an ear open for the Skylarks to appreciate the lengths they go to for defending their area. Or keep your eyes peeled for groups of Sand Martin intricately feeding together along the estuary.

I’ve always been fascinated by the different ways each species can tackle the same issue in different ways. No approach is better, just different. Part of the intrigue of nature.

Our species of butterfly and moth, collectively known as Lepidoptera, are perfectly adapted to survive in our UK climate but many species are only able to make use of certain parts of the country due to temperature and/or habitat.

Butterflies, and moths to some degree, are often used as indicators of climate change as they are very sensitive to climate variables. Temperature strongly effects butterflies so it makes sense that you can see climate change effects through changes in the butterfly populations in an area.

Species at the northern limit of their ranges for instance have been able to expand their ranges, moving northwards throughout the UK. Orange-tip and Peacock have become common in Scotland as the climate has become more suitable with this being linked to climate change.

The Cinnabar Moth, a day flying moth, was at its furthest range at St Cyrus for some time but was recorded at Forvie NNR in 2009 and is now regularly recorded on the Reserve clifftops.

Migratory species of butterfly like the Red Admiral have adapted to the climate with wintering populations now found in the UK.

Another adaptation being employed to deal with the changes in climate is to start emerging earlier in the year in line with the climate. The beginning of the year in 2019 was much warmer than the same time period in 2018. This brought with it earlier species records of butterfly. In this way, many species of butterfly or some moths can almost look like they are extremely well equipt to deal with climate change. Move North and/or start your life cycle earlier to match the climate.

On the flip side of this there are some species that cannot adapted at this pace like the High Brown Fritillary and Silver-Studded Blue. Not species you see at Forvie mind you but they are specialised species. They have more particular habitat requirements and can be isolated on fragments of suitable habitats. These habitats are like small islands in a sea of agriculture and urban development. Due to their specialism, they cannot adapt quickly enough to keep up with the climate. In response to this though are some amazing projects though focused on wildlife corridors, connecting bits of isolated habitat to help stabilise and spread populations, particularly for habitat specialist that are more prone to population fragmentation.

All in all there will be some positive and some negative impacts with climate change, each having a separate influence dependant on the species and habitats. The story of the Peacock spreading is similar to that of the Robins and the Blackbirds of the bird world. The Generalists survive. The Peacock butterfly fairs best in the face of habitat loss and climate change as it can survive on more varied habitats. In this case, the Peacock butterfly establishing further north did so in part by making use of our gardens, the “small islands” we’ve provided in the sea of urban development. So never forget the importance of your garden in the bigger picture of wildlife biodiversity, every little green space is important.

One of the features that makes Forvie special, like much of the North East coast, is the coastal morphology. The cliffs of Forvie are a protected feature of the site and it’s an important habitat on its own right. The environment is harsh, bearing the brunt of strong winds, breaking waves and salt spray. Yet they are home to plenty of wildlife, our coastal specialists!

Some of the species that might instantly jump to mind are our seabirds like thyis Kittiwake below pictures last year. Many species will nest on the cliffs to stay away from predators like foxes but herin lies the trade off. There is a reason they are safer from certain predators on the cliffs, the danger and harshness of the environment. These birds are specially adapted to live in these environments, filling a different niche than species we might see inland.

But birds are not the only groups that have adapted to these niche environment. These are also harsh conditions for plants, on the cliff and clifftops. The physical elements are challenging. Strong winds prune plants of leaves and dry them out. Rocky and sandy soil limit water retention. Waves crashing over the cliffs spray salt in the air that absorbs into the plants – all things that would kill many plants.

Yet as the title suggests, our coastal specialist are hardy plants! A familiar sight for many on the cliffs will be Sea Thrift. You will often see bees fliting from flower to flower on the Forvie cliffs picking up nectar and pollen along the way. One of the features that allows it to grow on the clifftops is that it’s a halophyte, meaning it is adapted to varying saline conditions. Salt taken up into the plant is compartmentalised and sent into older leaves of the plant which will be shed from the plant. It is also drought tolerant, meaning it will grow well on coastal habitats but in poorly drained soil that holds a lot of water, Sea Thrift would likely be out-competed by other plants.

Another coastal specialist we have on the Forvie coast is this beautiful flowering Sea Campion. As the name suggests, just like Sea Thrift, it occurs mostly by the sea and grows on the clifftops on the reserve. Sea Campion’s grey-green leaves are slightly fleshy which helps it to retain moisture in the face of sea winds. The leaves are also waxy to feel, this is often a feature of plants to help retain moisture in the leaf.

One of the rare and protected plants at Forvie which is a true coastal specialist is the Oysterplant pictured below. It blooms beautiful blue flowers, pink when in bud. It forms mats on the shingle and even from the picture you can tell the leaves are quite fleshy to help store water! It got its common name as its leaves are said to taste of oysters. As it’s a protected plant we can’t of course test that so we might have to trust the internet on that one. They are also called Sea Bluebells as the flowers do share a resemblance! On the reserve these plants can grow on the high tide line, washed over with sea water and wave action. The lack of other plants nearby shows just how specialised and tough plants like this can be but they do suffer. Its rarity these days stems from habitat destruction and climate change.

This last plant grows in coastal areas like clifftops and salt-marshes but can occur other places as well. Common Scurvy-grass. To avoid confusion, it didn’t get its common name because it leaves you anaemic with severe tooth issues but quite the opposite. It is rich in vitamin C and was brought on ships in dried bundles or as extracts to stave off scurvy. The sharp taste of the leaves were made into a popular Scurvy-grass ale in the UK as a tonic. That might just be another flavour that I’ll leave to my imagination. Like the other plants here, it has a high tolerance to salt levels which allows it to grow better in unforgiving coastal conditions.

All in all the species found on the coast are often specially adapted to this environment, hence why they thrive as opposed to other species. These species are just some of the plants that brave the elements to adapt to their local environments.

It’s that time of the year again, your garden birds are getting busy and collecting nest material for the season ahead. The dawn chorus a beautiful sound scape in the early hours, if you’re the type to be up that early!

Over the last while I’ve watched some of my garden birds gather nest materials, eagerly hopping around on the ground collecting foliage, small twigs, feathers… the whole shabang really.

I’ve been lucky enough to get a Willow Warbler singing in my garden everyday too! Unfortunately this good luck has been balanced out by a nesting pair of Starling in the gutter above my bedroom window….. the scratching and calling a 5am has been a very consistent alarm clock recently.

Although a lot of birds nest in trees as you would expect many also nest in bushes and hedgerows.

With this in mind and with many of us out gardening in the current crisis its important to not forget that any tree or hedge work should be avoided at this time of the year! All nesting birds are protected in the UK so there is a risk of disturbing or destroying nests with tree or hedge work during the breeding season.

My garden birds prepping for the season got me thinking about other species that I am missing at home, the diversity in how birds nest can be quite interesting! Our reserve resident terns and Black-Headed Gulls for instance opt to nest on the ground in large colonies. Although non breeding on reserve, waders like Lapwing nest in a similar fashion in some regards, relying on safety in numbers. They in particular look to nest in very short cropped vegetation in wide open areas like fields to limit any hiding spaces or perches for predators. Trees that might be too near could rule out a nesting location for Lapwing, a potential perch for a buzzard to prey on the colony.

Eider take another approach, relying on camouflage and nesting in the vegetation. They stay perfectly still if they think you haven’t noticed them to protect their eggs.

One of the first birds that shocked me was they Grey Heron, turns out they nest in trees! Being a waterbird I never really associated them with trees but they do nest high up in the canopy. Heronries can be found in reedbeds too which I suppose is what I had assumed initially, at least I wasn’t totally incorrect.

Two other surprising species are Puffins and Shelduck. Both birds can actually re-purpose old rabbit burrows to nest underground! Surprising enough as I found this, the biggest surprise came last year seeing a single Jackdaw flying in and out of the ternary, entering with a full crop and leaving with an empty crop. After investigating the site to ensure there wasn’t any predation issues the only thing we found was a number of old rabbit holes…. we came to the conclusion that like a Puffin or Shelduck, the Jackdaw was probably making the most of the available space underground to make its nest.